Developing a Multilingual Phone Bot: How It Was Launched and What It Focuses on
The first startup introduction is by Hiroyuki Anno, CEO of DELIGHT Global Inc.
We will be looking at the story of how he built the foundation of his startup by effectively utilizing his areas of expertise to solve his own “troublesome” experiences.
Noteworthy contents:
How did he start his business?
How did they establish their business model?
What are the actions that form the basis of global expansion?
What is it that you need to do because you are Japanese?
What is the Founder Institute?
- Thank you very much for joining us on the RiSiN podcast. I would like to introduce once again that this RiSiN is a podcast in which I invite entrepreneurs, businesspersons investors, etc. who are active overseas and transmit the information in the form of an interview with the guests. The reason why we started this podcast is to increase the number of startups and businesspersons who challenge themselves overseas, and at the same time, by interviewing people who are active overseas with a focus on Japanese people, we hope to make this a useful medium for those who want to challenge themselves overseas. I hope that this media will be useful for those who want to challenge themselves in foreign countries.
- I know this is very quick, but could you please give us a brief self-introduction?
Mr. Anno “Yes, my name is Hiroyuki Anno. I'm Japanese and I live in Tokyo. I have one child and I am 53 years old. To explain my business, I studied AI at university and now I am a multilingual phone bot that provides a SAAS system to automate phone calls. I have been running 300 km every month for the past 3 years.
- 300 kilometers per month, yes. That's great.
Mr. Anno: I exercise a lot, so I think I can run faster than most people in their 20s and 30s.
- By the way, about 300 kilometers a day... 300 kilometers a day, that's 10 kilometers a day. I know you're pretty busy doing startups as well, but at what time of the day do you run, in the morning?
Mr. Anno: “My kids are in elementary school now, so I go to school with them at 8:00 a.m., and they go straight to school, but I go for a run, so I tend to run from about 8:10 to 9:00 or 9:30.”
- 10 kilometers in roughly 1 hour and 1.5 hours?
Mr. Anno: “If I run seriously, I can probably run in about 40 minutes, but that's impossible if I run at full strength every day, so I have a training menu. I can now run with the GARMIN coach, and I can run hard when I want to, but I can also run smoothly when I don't want to.”
- What's the trigger?
Mr. Anno: “I'm not the type of person who competes in competitions, I run for my health, but the reason I started running was because I felt my fitness was declining when I passed 38 years of age, and also because I now weigh only 64 kilograms, but I was well over 90 kilograms.”
- I can't imagine that at all.
Mr. Anno: ”People tell me that I'm losing strength, or that I'm fat, as I'm getting older, and I also have bad breath. So I started running, and I started running about 30 kilometers every month. After I bought a GARMIN, I was able to see my sleep data and exercise data in an integrated form. I am also a start-up entrepreneur, so when I run, for example, when I am mentally down and out, I can see that I am already 15 minutes into a runner's high, and I can see the mental and routine aspects of my running as well as the increase in my physical fitness. I've come to realize that I've got a routine.”
- That's wonderful. I think there are relatively few startup entrepreneurs who can do both.
Mr. Anno: “That's right. Some people say 100 kilometers per month, but once you exceed 150 kilometers per month, if your running form is not good, you will get injured and you won't be able to run any longer, even if you try. Correct form, or running style, is necessary after 150 kilometers per month, and in addition to that, you need to find the time to run after 200 hours.”
- I'm not very good at running long distances because I don't have much time to run, and I'm not very good at short distances. I don't think I'm really suited to running, but I'm thinking about giving it a try.”
Mr. Anno: “Yes, that's right. People often compare entrepreneurship to running a marathon, and that's exactly what it feels like.”
- My understanding of your current startup service is to DX the call center, but what was the impetus for launching this service?
Mr. Anno: “I originally worked for a general trading company, but I left in 2000 and started my own sports business company. I started my own sports business company and organized marathons. It is raining today, but in Tokyo, for example, if a marathon is to be held the next day and it rains the day before. I would get a lot of calls from people asking me, the marathon organizer, if the marathon would be held even though the weather forecast is for rain tomorrow.”
Mr. Anno: “The answer to that question is always on the website, like we're going to do it rain or shine. It says that even if it rains, we will do it, but just when you think it has rained, it starts raining again. If there were only 30 or so participants, it would be known, but if there were 1,000 or so, the number would be quite large, and people would call just to be sure, even if it was written that the event would be held rain or shine. The day before the event, there were 50 or 60 staff members on hand. They would give explanations, put up banners, and create an atmosphere of excitement for the event. I had to greet the neighbors and do a lot of other things, so it was a lot of work, so I started to help myself.”
- It's like you saw an opportunity in what you experienced in the very process of operation.
Mr. Anno: “It's not so much that I saw an opportunity, but I couldn't do it anymore, so I had to do it. I was an AI major myself, so the university. I could code and build the system myself, so I didn't think about anything else, just about helping myself.”
- I see. First of all, you wanted to lighten this operation itself, and that's how this service was created.
Mr. Anno:, “That's right. I just happened to be there at the right time”
- I see. How long did it take you to make this?
Mr. Anno: “I don't know if I started using it for myself, but even before the year 2000, it was a chatbot at first, not to automate phone calls, but there were actually not that many people who asked me questions via chatbot, and since it says on the website that it is rain or shine, I knew there was a need to call to check just in case. I realized that if I didn't create something to automate phone calls, my phone would keep ringing.”
Mr. Anno: “So, before the year 2000, I made a telephone BOT and was operating it for a marathon that I was organizing, but then Corona happened. I couldn't run the marathon anymore, but on the other hand, I saw a lot of news about health centers being overwhelmed with phone calls, and that's when I realized that maybe this could be useful for the world besides marathons.”
- That's an interesting approach. I wonder what people would say about that. I'm sure you probably felt the same way when you ran into some challenges, but you didn't see it as a business from the beginning, but later on.
Mr. Anno: “Yes. I think it's similar to what people often say about startups and things like Slack, or Shopify, or something like that.”
- So you have not really developed your business in earnest until now, since you became Corona?
Mr. Anno: “Yes, I think the world started to change with Corona around March 2020, but we officially launched in October 2020.”
- And so with the official launch, you incorporated yourself as a start-up company.
Mr. Anno: “No, it was the same corporation that ran marathons and other events, and although it is often said in Japan that corporations are reorganized, I thought it would be a waste to throw away what we had already done, and although we launched a telephone BOT and officially launched it, I thought it would be a good idea to do something else. I also thought it would be a waste to throw away what we had already done. I also wanted to do it in parallel, and that's why I didn't change the corporation.”
- Did you have any problems in raising funds or using the corporation as it was?
Mr. Anno: “There are two reasons. First, even though I've been in the sports business for 20 years, I still think that the sports business is better if it is tech oriented, but in my case, I was organizing real marathons and representing athletes, so I'm not a startup. So, it's not a startup. First of all, of course I wanted to raise funds, but when I look at the presentation materials I was making at the time, I think they are completely useless, especially for investors. They were the kind of materials that often start with a self-introduction, or “what company did you work for in the past,” or “your educational background,” or “your life story,” or “please help us because we have these thoughts. So, what changed was that...FI. This just came in, starting in October of 2020.”
- I understand that the Founder Institute is located in Silicon Valley, right? They have an accelerator program for startups, and they invest in selected startups, right? After the program? Was it before the program?
Mr. Anno: “First of all, the investor will invest in the 2.5% of equity as warrants. At the end of the 14-week accelerator program, you must create a corporation in order to graduate from the program, and the Founder Institute will contract for 2.5% of the warrants for the corporation you created. The Founder Institute will sign a contract for a 2.5% warrant for the corporation, and you will graduate. In fact, the 2.5% warrants are paid out when the company is awarded a Series A or other series of shares in the future. I'm very grateful for that.”
- By the way, how did you come to know about FI?
Mr. Anno: “First of all, our company was planning to compete in the global market from the beginning, so when we thought about attracting global investors for our multilingual phone BOT, we filtered out those who had three or more years of investment experience, such as crunch-based investors, angel investors, and so on. We were looking for European investors. I was trying to find European investors, and I came across people who were European, but living in Japan. I approached European investors, but basically, it is impossible for angel investors to invest in Japan if they are geographically far away, so I was unaware of this. I was told by a European investor that Japan was too far away for angel investment.
Mr. Anno: “When I was approaching European-Americans living in Japan, I didn't hear about the Founder Institute directly, but I saw that they were posting about the Founder Institute's online events, and I wondered about the Founder Institute, I didn't hear about the Founder Institute directly when I was approaching people in Europe who were living in Japan, but I saw that you were posting about the Founder Institute's online events, or that you were going to be a speaker, and I wondered what the Founder Institute was. I was using Crunchbase to send out messages to various overseas investors in the angel round, and I was doing about 400 investors from the beginning. I started using Crunchbase to send messages to them.”
- I see, so you sent it to 400 people, but only about 3 got back to you?
Mr. Anno: “We received about 3 letters for every 100 people, so we received about 400 letters, and I think we got about 10 back. Even so, when they were returned, they were returned. I think it was unusual for a Japanese person to receive such a letter. Japanese people don't do this kind of thing, so it was the same with the sports agent work I had been doing until then, but as I said, when you make the first contact as a Japanese person, Europeans respond.”
- I see...by the way, I apologize for my lack of study, but I think the geographical remoteness of investing in Japan is probably one of the reasons why people have refused to invest in Japan, but I also wonder if people are concerned about the tax implications and other reasons why they would pass on investing in Japan.
Mr. Anno: “Yes, that's right. I'm not familiar with it because I don't have anyone around me who invests, and of course I know that Japan is a democratic country, and some places are popular for travel, but I don't have anyone around me who invests, so I don't know anything about tax, stock options, what happens if something happens, and so on. There is no one around me who knows anything about taxes, stock options, or what to do in case something happens, and everything else is in Japanese. And everything else is in Japanese. This is also very scary for foreign investors. I see, so there are some hurdles. From an investment standpoint. On the other hand, as you know, angel investors are approached by many different types of people within the region. There is no need to go that far to invest in Japan.
- I see, indeed. I thought that was a very interesting insight. By the way, what are the selection criteria for the Founder Institute?
Mr. Anno: “First of all, I can say that my understanding is that the Founder Institute is designed to focus on people and allow them to participate in the accelerator, and then how do you do that when founders that you don't know come down, one of the things that you have to do is to find out what the business plan is in English and what the business plan is in English. Whatever it is, do you have a business plan in English or not? That's one of the first things. The other is to combine it with the criteria that have been accumulated as know-how within the Founder Institute, such as the Entrepreneurial Aptitude Test, which is something like an intelligence test created by the Founder Institute, and in my case, for example, I think there is a great deal of one-to-one consistency, For example, in my case, I drive 300 kilometers every month for 3 years. Well, I think that's a given, but I also think you have to be consistent and take responsibility for what you say, and there are about 9 types of aptitudes for various investors, and I think you will be accepted if each element is above a certain standard.
- Thank you very much. For those viewers who don't know about that Founder Institute, I'll include a link or a reference link when I make a proper article about it later, so please check back. I see that the program is 14 weeks long, is that less than 4 months already?
Mr. Anno: “After all, there is something like a week before the program starts or after the program starts, so it's about 16 weeks. On the founders' side.”
- By the way, as much as you can share, what is the general content of the program like?
Mr. Anno: “First of all, there were still tens of funders who participated at first, and everything is done online first. In our case, there were roughly 22 people who initially participated, and in the case of the cohort I participated in, we recruited 22 people to join the Founder Institute's JAPAN cohort, but there were also Americans, Indonesians, Myanmarese, and so on, There were Americans, Indonesians, Myanmarese, and many other nationalities. There were also Italians. Basically, just because it is the Japan Cohort does not mean that everyone is filtered by the Japanese market and Japanese entrepreneurs. Yes, it does. First of all, the Founder Institute is a worldwide movement, and it's all done in English.”
Mr. Anno: “We have a cohort of 200 cities around the world, but I think the main reason why we choose Japan is because of whether or not we are aware of the Japanese market. For example, if you are Japanese but focused on the German market, you could join the Berlin cohort, for example.”
- So the Fund Institute is not just a branch of the Fund Institute, but it has programs in various countries around the world.
Mr. Anno: “Yes, about 200 cities.”
- By the way, was Mr. Akono the only Japanese entrepreneur in the cohort when you participated?
Mr. Anno: “There were several of us, but in all there were about 22 of us at the time. There were 10 or so of them. I think about half of them were there.”
- Do you feel that the members of the proposed field who graduated last graduated last?
Mr. Anno: “I think we graduated seven or eight people until the end, but I think there were four Japanese.”
- It's a pretty narrow gate, isn't it?
Mr. Anno: “There are many accelerators in the world, but for example, in the famous ‘Y Combinator’, many students graduate after being selected, which is a bit similar to Japanese universities. The Founder Institute is like an American university, where it is easy to get in but difficult to graduate. When you don't keep up, you get kicked out, or dropped out, or kicked out, or you want to quit because you can't keep up.”
- Do you feel that you were originally accustomed to using English?
Mr. Anno: “That's the thing. I was born and raised in Japan and have never lived abroad. I went to elementary school in Japan, junior high school in Japan, high school in Japan, and university in Japan, and I have never studied abroad or been stationed abroad. I have never studied abroad or been stationed in Japan, so the things I have done are attending an English conversation school, studying abroad in front of an ekimae (train station), and a little training for new recruits at a general trading company when I was a university student. So the first thing I did at the Founder Institute was an elevator pitch, where they ask you to explain your business in one minute.”
Mr. Anno: “So I started out with the same level of Japanese people, where it wasn't an elevator pitch at all, where you introduce yourself and do a little business, and that's it.”
- It's a crazy thing when you think about it.
Mr. Anno: “It was very difficult to graduate properly to the end, and what was really difficult was that I had to do more and more assignments every week, week after week, that would get me further and further into my business, and if I couldn't do them, I basically couldn't move on to the next week, and again, it wasn't classroom learning or anything like that. And if you can't do that, you basically can't move on to the next week. So it was very difficult because there were so many questions like, “You have to figure out your own business. Did you have a founder at that time? Did you feel like you were on your own from then on? I was a single solo founder. That's an amazing feat, Mr. Akano. I have my own personal hypothesis as to why Japanese startups don't go abroad more often. I think one of the reasons is because they don't speak perfect English.
- What do you say about this place? Of course I can understand that, but what Mr. Akeno is saying is that it has been proven that it is possible to graduate from an overseas English-only accelerator program in less than four months in an unfamiliar English language. So, how should I put it? What advice would you give to those who want to go abroad but can't because of the language barrier?
Mr. Anno: “First of all, Japanese companies often have a common problem with interpreters. For example, they put someone who can speak English on their side, and since the founders cannot speak English, they put someone who can speak English on their side, such as an engineer or a business developer, and they think it is okay because that person is there. But that person may be Japanese, so there are two Japanese people, but that is already a wrong design, a mistake, and we cannot expand globally if that is the case. Of course, it was difficult for me to make a one-minute pitch in English because I had never done it before, but if we did it 200 or 300 times, we could have the founders think of a one-minute line on ChatoGPT and repeat it 2,300 times, and then we could do something like this. I could do this if I repeated it 2 or 3 hundred times. This is very important.”
- The point is that it is quite necessary to have the spirit of not being afraid to take on challenges and not being afraid to fail.
Mr. Anno: “But that is where the Japanese are not good at. That's where we are definitely lacking. I won't even go into the fact that they can't speak English.
- It is important to challenge yourself from the beginning, even if you can't do something, to go for it in your own way, even if you can't do it.
Mr. Anno: “You are right. We won't know anything unless we do it first.”
- Thank you very much. What can I say already? In the second half of the session, I would like to ask you some deep questions based on the keyword “global” and I would like to talk about some in-depth topics.
Mr. Anno: “Yes, I understand.”
- For now, here is the first half of the report. See you in the second half.
Mr. Anno: “Thank you.”